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All schools In Denmark switching to Linux

Posted by Hemos on from the making-the-move dept.

Someone who can read Danish writes "According to this story (in Danish) Denmark has taken the first steps to start using Linux and Staroffice in all schools (1.1 million students). Sun has agreed to provide Staroffice for free, or on a CD-ROM for 10 Danish crowns ($1.5)."

3 of 395 comments (clear)

  1. Universities in the US considering it as well by blacklambda · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I work as a Network Engineer in a state-run university in Pennsylvania. The new Microsoft lisence terms (a.k.a. software rental)are beginning to cause major worry in a 2500-plus seat environment where old versions running on ancient comptuers allow us to get by. The concept of moving to a StarOffice or other productivity suit us now (an a year ago unthinkable) being seriously considered.

    --
    Ryan Dorman, CCNA Network Communications Specialist Millersville Univesrity
    1. Re:Universities in the US considering it as well by Chordonblue · · Score: 5, Interesting

      We might not be a university, but our school here in PA did it. We converted to Staroffice 6.0 for the teachers and lab computers. We also distribute Openoffice.org to all of the students. This is an important point, because as MS Office file formats become more and more fragmented (just wait until Office 11!), the need to unify on a single, usable format (like XML) becomes critical. While saving money on licenses is a bonus, the real savings for us is in the heartache of incompatible formats.

      Anyone here care to guess how many different incompatible programs our students have on their computers? Not counting the various (and sometimes) incompatible variations on MS Office, you also have the abortion known as MS Works. Then there's Lotus, WordPerfect... Hell, even NOTEPAD! And don't get me started about the different versions used from country to country. We have students who attend here from all over the world.

      We've been using Open/Staroffice now for well over a year and are not looking back anytime soon. There were some minor initial glitches, but this was due to our using the Openoffice.org betas. Star PP1 / Open 1.0.1 have been rock solid for us.

      Chuck Hunnefield
      Technology Coordinator
      Linden Hall School for Girls

      "They bought their tickets... They knew what they were getting into..."

      --
      "...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
  2. Re:Editors on crack... by Mathness · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The article speaks mostly about Sun's StarOffice and how students will be offered it, not that every school will switch to Linux.

    What I find amazing is that this story is more "news worthy" than Denmarks resent law (passed on 11/12-02) and enforced from 22/12-02, whick makes it illegal to import or resell music CDs, DVDs, books and comics from outside EU. Except for your own personal use. Which means that any buisness, education or public service (Radio and TV) have to ask permission each time they want to buy/import any of these items, if they survive long enough. Laserdisken (a Danish shop specilized in import of DVDs from America and Asia) have already begone to close two of its three shops.

    Read here for more info (sorry Danish only):
    Politiken
    Digital forbruger

    --
    Carbon based humanoid in training.